Quote Originally Posted by Garandrew View Post
The reason I'm leaving the grease on the grasping groove rifle is because it proves even beyond the magazine SN list, its a LL Red Star, and unmolested since the Brits put the grease on. I know its not RA shipping cosmolineicon.
If you look at the magazine pictures of the rifles out of the crate...what you see, is what I have...it blows minds at the Big E gunshow where Ive shown it to eye popping crowds....and I was just carrying it in to show a buddy from NY who collects 03's.
I'm not selling, but I guarantee it will be more valuable in the grease,,,because buyers would anticipate what it would look like with their TLC...removing the grease.
GG rifles are much rarer....and I'm proud to have 1, plus another with non GG stock, sort of the 2 big variations...
BTW..."Modified" does not refer to non GG rifles with stamped later parts, with FJA as some suggest....I note you dont refer to them with that nomenclature anyway...
We need a book on these early RA M1903's...
They are all "Modified"...by U.S. Ordnance reference, but not officially by the U.S. or RA, just "U.S. Model M1903 Remington" from 3000,000 to 03-A3
Andy
Andy,

You are no doubt correct that the grease will make it more valuable to someone, but, personally, I would be a bit careful of representing the rifle as, "...unmolested since the Brits put the grease on."

Another, perhaps over-looked, value in keeping the grease on, is the fact that it covers up the dings and gouges in the stock from the more than fifty years of being thrown around by stevedores and longshoreman during its two voyages across the Atlantic, plus numerous moves across the country, while being tightly nestled against its crate-mates and separated from the row above, or below, by wooden dividers.

It is a crying shame what these beautiful rifles went through while lodged in those crates. The storage method did an excellent job of protecting the metal, but, not so great the wood. Apart from the various degrees of dings and gouges in the fore-end, of the dozens of these rifles I examined in Loren's store, every single one of them had major impressions in the butt from the front band screw of the rifle laying next to it in the crate. Some of these impressions were of such pressure that they bear the reverse image of the screw head, so the screwdriver slot in the head of the screw now protrudes.

Under some of these dents can be seen the evidence of Britishicon armorers attempts to sand out some of the dings the rifles received in their first trip across the Atlantic...Wouldn't do to issue a new rifle with fresh dents visible in the stock, now would it, old chap!

Perhaps there is more to be said in leaving the grease on than I first thought.

Terry